


With a cold fist and a gaze of death

by Still Invincible (Tocsin)



Category: Daredevil (TV), Deadpool - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Bullying, Child Abuse, DevilPool, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:55:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28118070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tocsin/pseuds/Still%20Invincible
Summary: Matt was an optimistic seven year old when he met his soulmate and he was never going to let him go.Wade was a bitter ten year old when he met his soulmate and couldn't believe that after everything he could get so lucky.But just because fate ties you together doesn't mean it stays that way.(Tags and warnings added as applicable!)
Relationships: Matt Murdock & Wade Wilson, Matt Murdock/Wade Wilson
Comments: 1
Kudos: 28





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> BIG THANKS to my boo who is bullying me into continuing and also my editor. Ilu so much 
> 
> Story title from 'Cutest Girl in Hell' by Colliding with Mars
> 
> It's going to start of pretty PG but I tagged it as mature to be safe for future chapters and themes.

Bullies had a tendency to leave Matt alone for the most part. He was called a few names here and there, but it wasn’t like he was alone in that. He even had friends in his class too. He and Jimmy always paired up for everything and they’d had that sleepover for Matt’s birthday. He could handle himself if the class bully, Charlie, wanted to call him names with Jimmy as his backup; which meant they were mostly left alone. The rest of their class had similar pair-ups, blocking Charlie from doing much damage to anyone in their group.

The kindergarteners were a different story. They were two years younger than them in a whole new environment, some who were away from their parents for the first time. They didn’t stand a chance against Charlie even on a good day, and today was not a good day. Normally the different grades didn’t mingle much, but there had been a fire drill that threw the normal schedule off enough that kindergarten through second grade were all at recess at the same time. Once their group was done, he knew the third, fourth, and fifth graders would head out. After recess he would have to go back to trying to pay attention to math and not fall asleep at his desk. Waiting for his dad last night toi come home from his fight had him up way too late.

That was probably why it took him a few minutes while playing basketball with Jimmy to pick up what was going on. The loud voice caught his attention, but the crying was what made him fully stop and turn. Charlie had two of the kindergartener kids against the school wall, out of sight from the teachers. While the other children around him muted what he was yelling, the look on the younger kids faces told the whole story - they were new targets.

“Hey Matt! Wait!” Jimmy followed quickly after his friend, Matt not even realizing he was making his way over until his friend called him. Charlie must have been paying more attention then Matt had earlier, because as soon as Jimmy yelled his head snapped around, eyes narrowing at the approaching boys. The kindergarteners were holding hands, both looking to him in obvious relief. Even if he couldn’t stop the bully, at least they could probably get away soon.

“This ain’t none of your business, nerds. Go away”

Matt stood his ground as Charlie’s fists clenched and found his shoulders squaring up in response. His dad hadn’t taught him much in the way of fighting yet, but he could probably hold his own against his taller classmate. He shifted his gaze to the side and saw that Jimmy… Jimmy was gone.

It was when he turned his head toward the sound of the recess whistle blowing and his friends retreating back that Charlie punched him in the gut. All the air in his lungs left, his arms moving to protect his hurt stomach while the bully laughed. The other kids took the opportunity to run as Charlie had his focus on his new target, leaving Matt alone.

“He actually left you behind Rat Matt- “

“Oh, wow. Is that really the best you could come up with?”

The new boy who had come over had to be one of the fourth or fifth graders with how tall he was. His short brown hair looked like it would need a trim soon, the bangs hanging over his brown eyes. The boy’s hands went to his hips, a mean grin lighting up his face as he looked at Charlie.

“I mean, I know that rhyming insults are easy but _really_ ? That was so bad. I’m ashamed for you. Your sister would be ashamed of you. Hey! Maria!” He turned, calling to one of the girls on the playground behind them. Matt watched with mute glee as Charlie’s face paled and he sputtered, tripping over his words. A short, blonde girl ran over to them, her long braid flying behind her. When she arrived she frowned, hands on her hips just like the other boy had done. The only difference was that she was much, _much_ angrier.

“Charlie! What did you do?! Are you picking on the little kids again?”

The panic on Charlie’s face would be a nice reminder anytime he tried to fight him in future. “They started it! I swear!” The other boy rocked back on his heels, his expression trying for ‘innocent’ but landing closer to ‘smug’.

“I just saw two kids that were practically babies high-tail it out of here and then this guy,” he gestured so wildly Matt and Charlie both had to duck out of the way of his flailing arm, “was all doubled over trying to breathe. It was tragic, Maria. A real shame what kids are coming to these days!”

The only person that Matt had ever seen so fast was one of the boxers at his dad’s gym and he would bet this girl moved faster. She grabbed Charlie in a headlock and started dragging him over to the groups of teachers still trying to get their students inside. The entrance was gridlocked with bodies of students and teachers as she pulled Charlie like he weighed nothing at all, yelling at him in some language he didn’t understand.

They stood in silence for a moment before the older boy turned to him, his head tilted. “Are you okay, or do we need to get a nurse? He hit you pretty hard, shorty."

The air left his lungs again and this time was even more of a shock than the hit earlier. Matt had seen those pale yellow words on his back more often then he would admit. He’d taken the hand mirror his mom had left behind so he could see them right in the bathroom mirror. It happened mostly when his dad wasn’t home and the house was just too quiet. He’d thought of thousands of responses to them from ones he thought would make him sound cool to even mean replies when he was upset at something and needed the outlet. All the preparation for those words left his mind and his mouth moved faster than his brain could.

“I'll always be okay, because I have you now"

It was his imagination but as the other boy’s face twisted into absolute shock, he could practically feel the words on his back, warm and comforting. He knew that the next time he saw them they would be the bright gold of a found soulmate. The other boy shook his head rapidly, reminding Matt of a dog shaking water off itself, and the smile on his face was blinding.

“Holy shi- Crap! You said my words! I said yours too, right? Don’t leave me hanging! I can’t take the suspense you gotta tell me Matty, come on-“

Matt laughed, reaching up and grabbing the boy’s- his _soulmate’s-_ shoulders, shaking him a little to get him to stop

“If you’d let me talk, I could answer!” His soulmate mimed zipping his lips closed, though that didn’t last long since he couldn’t stop smiling. Matt could understand the feeling

“Yes, you said my words. Can you tell me your name? You know mine. That’s fair.”

“I’m Wade!” The boy was practically vibrating in Matt’s hold “But I can’t believe I had to hear your name from that little puss stain. I’m gonna have to tell Maria so she can smack him extra hard for me”

The morality behind that was a little wonky, but Matt couldn’t help but laugh. His _soulmate_. He found his soulmate! Maybe he’d have to thank Charlie for this later... Much later.


	2. The parent dichotomy

By the time Matt got home he could barely hear his dad talking to him over how loud he was panting. Sprinting home from the bus after school might have been a bad idea but he just couldn’t  _ wait.  _ He knew his dad didn’t have a fight tonight so he wouldn’t be leaving right after dinner, and he  _ needed _ to tell him about his soulmate. He had barreled into his dad as soon as he got his backpack off and in the apartment, arms wrapping around him and barely able to breathe, let alone talk. Matt didn’t know how long it took for him to get his breathing under control while his dad rubbed his back, comforting, but his words showing obvious concern.

“Come on Matty, you need to breathe, buddy. Deep breaths. You can do it; I know you can.” And he  _ could _ . Eventually his breathing evened, his heart no longer beating so hard it felt like it was trying to escape his chest. When he felt less like he was going to pass out due to lack of oxygen he looked up at his worried father, feeling like he was smiling so hard his lips were going to split. 

“Dad. Dad. DAD! I met him! I actually met him!” His dad looked more confused now, which was good. Matt hadn’t meant to freak him out. He was just so excited!

“What? Who did you meet? What happened?”

“My romantic!” Confusion shifted to pure shock on his dad’s face, his mouth dropping wide as Matt squeezed him in a tighter hug. “It was at school! His name is Wade and he’s in fifth grade and it was Charlie again but Wade is friends with his sister and she stopped him and then Wade said my words and I almost got in trouble for staying past recess but Wade told them- “

“Matt, breathe! Calm down or you’re going to hyperventilate again.” He’d been winding up again without noticing... Oops. Forcing himself to focus on his breathing again, he filled his lungs with a deep breath and let it out slowly. His dad nodded and picked him up with a small grunt.

“That’s right. Keep going for a minute.” He was carried to the couch, dad putting him down then sitting next to him with a sigh. “You couldn’t have waited until you were a teenager for this, at least?”

Matt couldn’t help the happy giggle as he shook his head, still not able to stop smiling. “I didn’t mean to, but it happened!” 

His dad looked worn out by the whole conversation, but he still smiled and ruffled his hair. Matt laughed again and swatted at the offending hand. “I guess you can’t really help who says your words when, huh?”

It wasn’t really like his dad would have known much about soulmates personally. Both of Matt’s parents had been blanks, no platonic or romantic soulmate for either of them. He wasn’t sure about his mom’s parents and it wasn’t exactly like he could ask her now when it was important. Asking dad about her hurt too much so he didn’t want to bring it up. He did know his dad’s parents had been romantics, but they had both passed before Matt was even born. It probably wasn’t easy for his dad to be blank with a son who had both a romantic  _ and _ a platonic soulmate. To find his romantic before he even got out of elementary school? Matt would have maybe felt a little bad about it if he didn’t currently feel like he was floating on clouds of happiness.

“You didn’t find the platonic too, did you?” Dad asked him while running his hand over his face. “I think I can handle the fact you found one of them, but if you got both of them today I may have to go lay down for a bit.” 

Matt’s hand dropped down to his calf where his platonic words lay under his pants, the words still waiting to change from their unfound grey to the silver of a found platonic soulmate. “No, I didn’t.” His dads relieved smile made him laugh “I don’t know how I would have felt if I found both either.” God, he probably would have passed out on the spot.

His dad stood up from the couch, grinning. “Hopefully I have a few years to prepare for that one, at least. Tonight though, I think we should celebrate. It’s not everyday someone finds their soulmate!”

With a whoop, Matt hopped down from the couch “Can we get a cake? Oh! Or ice cream?”

“We’ll get both, Matty. And I want you to tell me everything you learned about Wade so far, ok?”

As if he needed to be prompted to talk about his new soulmate… Matt nodded anyway and followed his dad to get their shoes, wondering what kind of ice cream Wade liked best.

* * *

Wade opened the front door as quietly as possible, wincing when the hinges squealed and  slipping through as soon as there was room. He hoped that quickly shutting it would stop the sound on the opposite swing but of course, it didn’t. He barely stopped the door from slamming shut behind him. After all the noise he stood with his hand still on the knob, ears straining for the sound of snoring (if he was lucky) or pounding footsteps (if he wasn’t). He could only faintly hear the TV in the living droning on but nothing else. So, a 50/50 shot at this point. Great.

After taking his shoes off as quietly as possible, Wade made his way through the living room to the kitchen. He’d become an expert at moving through this house nearly silently just like he had with all their other houses. Military placements were garbage, but his dad was ‘honorably discharged’ from the Navy now due to his ‘medical condition’. Wade had lived in more houses than years he’d been on Earth, but they weren’t shipping out ever again. A blessing and a curse, really. He didn’t have to be the new kid in school every six months anymore, but now his dad was home all the time. Hell, he’d rather be the new kid every week if it meant the Commander wasn’t at home in his stupid chair all day every day.

Making it to the living room was the worst part because his dad was there all the time. Couldn’t he at least pass out in his own room more often? Wade eyed the number of cans on the floor by the damn chair and the half empty bottle of whiskey on the side table. Oh, so he finished last night’s bottle. There weren’t enough cans littered on the floor to have him pass out yet though. Probably.

He took another step in the room and the Commander lazily tilted his head in his direction. Shit. He hated when he was right. Wade straightened his posture, arms going behind his back to parade rest and he nodded at the man slouched in the chair.

“Hello sir” The words burned coming out of his mouth and tasted like ashes. He didn’t deserve a damn  _ sir- _

__

“Boy” His father’s eyes were half lidded as he lifted his current can to his lips and chugged the remainder. Good. One more of those and Wade should be free for the night. He tossed the can on the floor with the rest.   


“Come here.”

Wade’s heart stuttered. _ Fuck, _ what did he do? He had done the damn chores last night like he did every night if only to avoid the commander’s heavy hands in the morning when he was sober enough to notice. He didn’t know what he did but Wade  _ did _ know better than to not come when called. He got within striking distance and resumed his parade rest as his father frowned and looked at him as though he couldn't quite focus.

__

“The hell you so happy about?” He reached out and Wade almost flinched but managed to halt his reaction. The drunk was moving slowly enough that even if he did hit him it shouldn’t be too bad. Luckily, he just grabbed Wade’s chin and tilted his head up, as though he needed a better look.

“I had a good day at school. Passed a pop quiz” The lie rolled off his tongue as easily as the truth with no real thought to it. He filed it away for later recollection in case his father wasn’t drunk enough to forget it.

He was surprised that his joy had shown enough that the Commander could notice it. Finding Matty had been the best thing to happen since… Well. He couldn’t really remember the last time something this good happened. That was sad. His head was turned to the opposite direction and Wade had to stop himself from pulling away. Things wouldn’t end well for him if he ‘defied’ the commander and he didn’t want to have to stay home tomorrow and miss seeing Matt. He hadn’t even gotten his phone number yet!

With a grunt the man let Wade go and grabbed another can, effectively dismissing Wade from the room. He mentally patted himself on the back for his top notch ‘dealing with the drunk commander’ skills and made his way to the kitchen. The other man would chug that can and then pass out, hopefully. Hands shaking slightly with the leftover adrenaline, he reached the cabinet and nearly dropped his packet of ramen.

He met his soulmate! He only had the one and he met them  _ now _ . How did he get so lucky? He would have to keep a shirt on for the foreseeable future so the Commander wouldn’t see the gold words across his stomach. Not that he went around shirtless much anyway. Any bruises seemed to just set his father off all over again for some reason when he saw them. It was like he was reminded of what he did and needed to punish Wade for it again. He’d invested in some long-sleeved shirts and hoodies at the last thrift store they visited when his teacher noticed his pants were highwaters. She’d called the Commander about it though. That had been a pain, literally and figuratively. He tried not to hold a grudge, but her glasses had gone missing on Wade’s next day back to school. What a surprise! She needed to watch her things better.

He hummed quietly to himself as he plopped the brick of noodles into a bowl and added the approximate amount of water to make sure they actually cooked and didn’t catch fire like they did the first time he made them himself. While he waited for one of the few things he could actually make for himself, he thought back to his soulmate. Matt Murdock. Younger than him but not by too much. He had a platonic too, somewhere, but Wade could work with that. Some people had multiple romantics which Wade would  _ not  _ be able to handle. So yeah, it worked. They were both young enough though for opinions to change. Wade was barely in the double digits and Matt hadn’t even got there. Even Wade’s parents had met when they were young teenagers. 

His stomach flipped against his will and he groaned. No. He was _ not _ going to let them be like his parents. Besides, that whole ‘the younger you meet your soulmate the rockier the path you walk together’ thing was bullshit. The fact that his father entertained that idea made it doubly distasteful. No. He and Matt would be different. Well… He’d do everything in his power to make them different. It wasn’t like his mom left them on purpose or anything. Not unless she found a way to give herself cancer to escape. 

Wade stopped the microwave before it beeped, using a dishcloth to grab the hot bowl to place it on the table. Only had to burn himself three times to learn that one. He had homework but he didn’t want to do it. Everything in his head just bounced back to Matt. Did Matt do his homework right as he got home or did his parents let him wait? Did he do them at the kitchen table like Wade or maybe he had a desk in his room? He wanted to talk to Maria about all this but she always had to watch her brother after school, the little shit. Fucking Charlie. Wade wouldn’t stoop to hitting a third grader. Maria would hit a third grader in a heartbeat.  _ Especially _ if that third grader was Charlie. He’d get her to do it. Their sibling resentment filled him with endless amusement which was probably something he shouldn’t find so funny. Oh well.

The snores started from the living room and Wade felt his shoulders relax. Good. He’d be okay for the rest of the night. He slurped his noodles happily, burning his tongue on the first bite but his mind a mile away. What was Matt having for dinner? Did he tell his parents about Wade? Does his mom coo over his words like Wade’s mom had before she got sick? Were they okay with his Soulmarks or were they like Wade’s dad about it? 

They had run out of time on the playground but had agreed to meet at the front of the school tomorrow. He was at the very least going to get Matt’s number. They could talk after the Commander passed out. Wade couldn’t wait to learn everything about him. For now though, he ate his noodles and let his thoughts wander to a better future. 

**Author's Note:**

> Chapter title from Colliding With Mars - Two Lions in the Rain


End file.
